Mae Tao Clinic

      This clinic was created by Dr. Cynthia, a Karen herself, who escaped Burma after the 1988 Uprising and the following crackdown who left 3,000 deads. The Burmese version of Tian An Men, but unknown. Dr Cynthia began by taking care of wounded students fleeing from Rangoon, in a small room of Mae Sot.

        Today, Mae Tao Clinic is much bigger but still depends on donations. 50% of the patients are Burmese workers legally living in Thailand. The other 50% are Burmese (especially Karen) who cross the river - legally or not - to be cured here. They don't have to pay for the care. Refugees don't come here, as they usually have a clinic in the camps.

         There are usually 3-4 baby delieveries every day. In 2006, there were 190 amputations, due to injuries caused by landmines. They cure dengue, malaria. They take care of children suffering from malnutrition. Or of people suffering from various physical traumas. There do consulting with young women, do HIV test on high-risk people (most Burmese don't know anything about HIV-AIDS)

        For difficult deliveries and some of the tests, they have to ask help from Mae Sot Hospital, which they pay afterwards.

Clinic area. Most of the buildings are behind me or on my right. Every building is a specific "ward" of the clinic

         My family gave me money, so I brought 6,000bt, or 130 euros. According to their website, it is :
- the cost of teaching materials for 50 children for one year
- or 33 Anti Malarials
- or the cost of measuring and producing one prosthetic leg for 13 landmine victims
- or about the cost of training one new health worker to work at the clinic or in conflict areas of Burma (100E)
- or the cost of supporting one teacher in a school for internally displaced children for one year
- or it supports the "Vitamin A and Deworming Programme" : a School Health Team to provide Vit A and Deworming to 6000 Burmese students along the border twice a year

  Thanks to them !